"Hex" is short for "Hexadecimal", which means: "Of, relating to, or based on the number 16"

Now what the heck does that have to do with colors?? Well, I'll get to that.

It's actually kinda easy, once you understand the basic structure of these numbers.

BASIC STRUCTURE

Normally we count to 16 like this:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

But, in the hexadecimal system, you count to 16 using only a single digit... like this:

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F

So the letter A would represent the number 10. And (oddly) the number 0 in hexadecimal would be the number 1 in regular counting. You just have to shift your thinking a little.

For purposes of making colors in Star Wars, there are 6 hexadecimal numbers that are used. They are used in three pairs of two numbers. For example FFFFFF is a code you might see, and it happens to represent the color WHITE (I'll explain that shortly).

BASIC COLORS

Next, in computers, there are THREE BASIC COLORS that we are working with. Now you'll have to forget a bit about what you learned in art class, because this is computer land. So the color wheel is a little skewed.

The three basic colors we are dealing with here are RED, GREEN, and BLUE. And you mix various amounts of each of these colors to create a very broad spectrum. Virtually any color can be made on a computer using these three colors.

COLOR RANGE

This is perhaps the trickiest part of making your colors. I'm going to try and explain it simply.

The three pairs of numbers used in the color code in the game each control the AMOUNT of each of the three BASIC COLORS to use. For example, the code "00" represents ZERO of that particular color. So if you used "00" in the very first two spaces for your code, then there would be NO red color in your text.

Conversely, the code "FF" is at the opposite end of the scale, and shows that you have the amount of red being used as high as it can go (namely, a very bright red color like this).

So 00 and FF are the two extremes here. It's the numbers in between that get to be tricky to figure out. So let me put down a couple of examples, and hopefully this'll make more sense.

I listed the number sequence above to count to 16 using hexadecimal. Now I'm going to use TWO hexadecimal digits, and show you how the sequence goes:

So you can see the range here. Depending on which pair of letters/numbers you enter, you will get varying degrees of that particular color.

THE SIX CHARACTERS OF THE CODE

So now that you've got some fundamentals down... it's time to show you how SIX of these numbers work with the three colors: RED, GREEN, and BLUE.

They go in that exact order when you are making your code. Like this:

FF0000 - This shows that we're using "FF" for RED and then "00" for both GREEN and BLUE. The color that this will make is of course RED.

00FF00 - In this one, the "FF" is put in the middle, which represents GREEN. Since the other two are both "00", the result here will be GREEN.

0000FF - And of course, this code will make the color BLUE.

MIXING COLORS

Now we get to mix the colors! Yippee!!!

Okay, if you mix RED and BLUE you get PURPLE. Does everyone know that? It works the same way with this code.

FF00FF - makes PURPLE.

Oddly, there are a couple weird combinations to get some other common colors.... in computers, you mix RED and GREEN to make YELLOW. (Sorry for you artistic folk who say this is not so! I assure you, it is. )

FFFF00 - makes YELLOW.

Another odd one is CYAN. For this one, if you mix GREEN and BLUE, you get CYAN.

00FFFF - makes CYAN.

The last odd one that I can think of is WHITE. But it's not really odd if you know about prisms and rainbows. If you mix an equal amount of ALL three colors, you will get various shades of WHITE.

FFFFFF - Bright WHITE

AAAAAA - LIGHT GRAY

999999 - GRAY

555555 - DARK GRAY

000000 - BLACK

THE FINAL TOUCHES

Now we're on the last stretch... you've got to mix it all together.

All of the above examples that I stated were for BRIGHT colors. And it certainly did not include EVERY color. You may need to experiment for awhile until you get it just right. But here's a couple more examples:

8B4500 - BROWN

EE7600 - ORANGE

USING THESE CODES IN STAR WARS

So now you want to implement these colors in the game? Well, keep in mind that the only things you can use these color codes on are: Structure names, backpacks, Spatial typing (including tells and such), and emails.

In order to tell the game that you are using a color code, you have to include a BACKSLASH "\" followed by a NUMBER SIGN "#". So it would look kind of like this:

\#FF00FF - This code in the game would make all the text after it appear PURPLE.

The text that you want to be purple should start immediately after the last letter/number in the color code. You can use a second BACKSLASH "\" at the end of your code if it makes it easier for you.

\#FF00FFHello!

...and...

\#FF00FF\Hello!

...would both look just like this in the game:

Hello!

THE WRAP-UP

That's about all I have for my guide folks. Oh yes, and it IS possible to use more than one color code in a single name for something. Just insert a fresh \#xxxxxx before each color change. Of course you have to use numbers/letters in place of the x's.

Let me know if you have any questions! If I need to make any changes to my post to make corrections, you'll have to wait until I become a veteran.

I know, this really was not a good idea. But the reason they said they did it was because it was taking away the the uniqueness of the premium auction feature on the Bazaar. As a merchant, premium auctions is supposed to be a perk for you, but really it doesn't do anything. Thus this was a very bad change.

Holosim - Master Architect of FlurryEmee - Gunslinger of Flurry

Come see the market of New Freeport, Naboo - FlurryJust a Hop, Skip and a Jump from the Shuttleport

Auhal wrote:Any idea why this won't work for me? I am in the UK, and so probably have a different keyboard. The backslash on my keyboard is next to the z key - where is it on a US keyboard so I can try that?

Strange, are you using the number sign ( # ) after the backslash ( \ )? It's also good to put a backslash after the HEX codes as well. \#00ff00\

On a US keyboard the backslash is located somewhere by the backspace key, which is underneath the F11 to F12 keys.

Holosim - Master Architect of FlurryEmee - Gunslinger of Flurry

Come see the market of New Freeport, Naboo - FlurryJust a Hop, Skip and a Jump from the Shuttleport

for the guy form the UK i'm from the UK also and my backslash key does not work in starwars so i have bound cut copy and paste under key bindings in options and just paste it all into the game from notepad. it's in the chat tab on keybindings.

the possion on the US keyboard layout (use dells at work) is where part of the enter key is on our key boards. next to this key ].

I'm also in the UK and the backslash key is DEAD. What an odd oversight!.. but then again it only seems to be used for coloured texts. I also have to cut and paste (cut and paste accepts any windows cut if you alt-tab to windows then notepad)

Nice post LadyLeala, I use the hex colors for waypoint markers because they make them easier to locate when you bring up the list. Thanks for the link too. Up until now I was just experimenting with the codes. lol Yep that took a long time to do.